{"id":219765,"date":"2025-09-12T02:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T02:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219765\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T02:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T02:48:15","slug":"steve-lavin-ad-like-toreros-chances-praise-for-tritons-new-ad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/219765\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Lavin, AD like Toreros’ chances; praise for Tritons’ new AD"},"content":{"rendered":"

USD\u2019s men\u2019s basketball program made some moves this offseason.<\/p>\n

Coach Steve Lavin added nine transfers and four freshman recruits, including two shooting guards.<\/p>\n

And last week, USD announced it had officially added 6-foot-10 center Piotr Winkowski and Bosnian League MVP Vuk Boskovic to the roster. The 22-year-olds arrived on campus in time for the start of classes and are expected to provide some needed size to a team that looks like it could make some noise in the West Coast Conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recruited some elite talent,\u201d Lavin said. \u201cOur program is ready to make the next step.\u00a0 We are moving forward with this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Toreros have a new, $35 million basketball practice facility and an athletic director, Kimya Massey, who understands what the Toreros could be capable of. WCC powerhouse Gonzaga will leave for the reconstituted Pac-12 following this season; the move could leave a power vacuum at the top of a league that has been dominated by the Zags and Saint Mary\u2019s for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow nice is this school? Why wouldn\u2019t you want to play here?: Massey said. \u201cThis place is gorgeous. Fantastic facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Lavin: \u201cThe jolt of energy is palpable. The new facility. The relaunch. We opted into the revenue sharing.\u00a0 The alignment is here. The NIL. The new facility. We have a new strength and conditioning coach just for football and basketball.\u00a0 We are adjusted to win. We centralized our program. We are winning. I feel like we are in a good place.\u00a0 We have funding. We have a collective now. Our women\u2019s program as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massey is aggressively changing the men\u2019s basketball program as well as others on campus. USD\u2019s women\u2019s basketball program is in the hands of first-year coach Blanche Alverson, the former associate head coach at Georgia Tech. The Toreros women\u2019s soccer team is enjoying early success under second-year coach Greg LaPorte<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A former Michigan State pitcher, Massey is driven to win in all sports. It\u2019s especially important in men\u2019s basketball, the most high-profile program on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to change these programs around,\u201d Massey said. \u201cUSD has the resources to win. And we are going to win. I promise that. As long as I\u2019m here, we are going to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

UCSD\u2019s hire of athletic director Andy Fee<\/a> this week was met with praise from many of his former colleagues.<\/p>\n

Washington athletic director Pat Chun said Fee, a former assistant AD at USD and AD at Long Beach State, is \u201csomeone who has demonstrated an ability to lead athletic departments, build strong relationships, support student-athletes, and uplift university communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy is a difference maker, and I look forward to watching him impact the Tritons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Seattle University AD Shaney Fink called Fee \u201ca proven leader whose vision and commitment to student-athletes make him an outstanding choice\u201d as AD.<\/p>\n

Fee spent the last year at Seattle U after a stint as the chief of staff at Washington. He and Fink first worked together at USD, where Fink spent 17 years as the highest-ranking woman in the Toreros\u2019 department.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our time together at San Diego to our recent collaboration at Seattle University, I have always admired Andy\u2019s energy, creativity and dedication,\u201d Fink said. \u201cI know he will make a powerful and lasting impact at UCSD, and I look forward to the spirited competition we\u2019ll share in the WCC.\u201d<\/p>\n

U-T sports editor Ryan Finley contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 11, 2025 at 7:13 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USD\u2019s men\u2019s basketball program made some moves this offseason. Coach Steve Lavin added nine transfers and four freshman…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":219766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1369,1370,3549,7264,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-219765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115189049183578703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}